It may be strange that we have this new WRC event listed as "China (IRC)", but essentially it is the same event!

While it is understandable that manufacturers want a WRC event on the big, Chinese market, there simply are big question marks.

Despite identical names this event has nothing to do with the original WRC Rally China, which was held in Jin Shan Ling, close to Beijing with a famous, picturesque finish at the Great Wall. However this event was part of the WRC for only one year, 1999, thereafter it has been dropped for bad organisation.

The Chinese "IRC" event was based near Fujian, which is close to Shanghai. This event was run in 2007 and 2008, but then again dropped for bad organisation. It virtually took weeks to get stage times from the stage ends. However since then the event was run as China's round of the APRC. It meanwhile has moved base slightly North to Langyou, and while the IRC rally was a mixed event, the APRC rally is mainly on asphalt.

However Langyou is also close to Shanghai and the stages that run along the coast to the South are essentially what we had in the IRC 8 years earlier! For comparison, we are approximately 1500kms South of Beijing as well as of the 1999 WRC event.